Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Previously, I have documented Obama's Soviet style Department of Agitprop (whitehouse.gov) which does an "end-run" around traditional press coverage. Today, ABC's Devin Dwyer further documents this frightening trend in an excellent article titled Obama's Media Machine: State Run Media 2.0?. He writes:

"The administration has narrowed access by the mainstream media to an unprecedented extent," said ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton, who has covered seven administrations. "Access here has shriveled."

Although every politician tries to filter coverage, Dwyer observes that the Obama administration has taken this to a disturbing level:

But some say the current dynamic is different, and dangerous.

"They're opening the door to kicking the press out of historic events, and opening the door to having a very filtered format for which they give the American public information that doesn't have any criticism allowed," said University of Minnesota journalism professor and political communication analyst Heather LaMarre.

Of course, this attempt to strictly filter media coverage is the M.O. of every socialist dictator and is part and parcel of the left's more general assault on freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which I have documented continuously. It is the quintessential example of the principle that faith and force are corollaries, i.e., that one who abandons reason and rational persuasion, must turn to force.

Quote of the Month

“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” -- Ayn Rand